


The Kelp Forest

by WilliamLeonard



Category: Slender Man Mythos, SpongeBob SquarePants (Cartoon)
Genre: Gen, Horror, slenderfic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-10-21
Updated: 2014-05-30
Packaged: 2017-12-30 02:24:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 12,836
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1012931
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WilliamLeonard/pseuds/WilliamLeonard
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>SpongeBob and his friends enter a kelp forest to search for a magic conch shell - yet what they find is more surprising, more intriguing, and far more frightening than they expect.</p><p>Slenderfic. More interesting than the summary implies, I promise. ;D Originally posted on the SpongeBob Fanon Wiki, now being ported to AO3. Enjoy!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

> -not really important, skip if you want unless you want to know more about the history of this piece-
> 
> \----
> 
> The idea for this came when I was in the middle of watching Entry 64 of Marble Hornets (a very famous and popular YT series based on the Slender Man) when I thought about how cool it would be if SpongeBob and his friends faced the entity, and what would happen.
> 
> So I started writing.
> 
> You may notice, as you read, that the writing quality gets slightly better over time. Back then I had no idea where this idea would take me. Nowadays, I still have no idea where it will take me although I have been thinking about some interesting ways of going about it. What I suggest to you, the reader, is not to pay attention to the overall mediocre read that is these first few chapters. It gets better.
> 
> I have taken some inspiration for this fic from Shooting A Student Film, a MarbleHornets fanfic by MadeOfSquirrels that you can find on both here and Fanfiction.Net. (I highly encourage you to read it, not only is it extremely well written, it also has quite a few interesting insights not to mention an ample amount of scares) However, I have also come up with a few original ideas for this completely by myself.
> 
> Finally, I have slowed writing production on this a significant amount due to other things (like school) cropping up. However, I am making progress, albeit very little, and I will eventually finish this fic, I promise.
> 
> Anyway, enough of me rambling on, time to read this! I sincerely hope you enjoy this, and leave any criticism in the comments! Any criticism helps me a lot, so I encourage you to leave some.

'Remind me why we're here again?' asked Squidward uneasily, as he, along with SpongeBob, Patrick, Sandy, Mr. Krabs and Gary, entered the Kelp Forest. 

'We need to find the Magic Conch Shell, remember?' Patrick replied.

'Oh yeah,' Squidward said, shuddering as he did so. This place was where he was stuck with no food, SpongeBob, Patrick, and some weird park ranger who Squidward had thought was going to save them, but was really just another dunce like those two. 

Oh. And the Conch Shell.

Squidward still had a burning hatred for that shell. It was the reason he had no food in the first place. Not that everybody was starving - SpongeBob and Patrick had a gigantic picnic table full of food. But that conch was the reason why he had not gotten even a nibble of the food, because for some reason, it was programmed to say only 'No' to poor old Squidward. 

He had no idea how SpongeBob and Patrick convinced him to come. Probably another one of Spongebob's crying fits. As if SpongeBob didn't have enough weird problems with himself. Strange. He wasn't really able to remember much after coming here.

'This place is creepier than Davy Jones' Locker,' Mr Krabs exclaimed, interrupting Squidward's thoughts. 

'This place is darker than a jackalope bouncin' in black paint,' Sandy added.

'Meow,' Gary purred uneasily. 

'Patrick! It's this way, isn't it?' SpongeBob asked, pointing left.

Patrick looked closely. All he could see was a bunch of kelp trees and sand. 'Uh... I guess.'

'Great!' SpongeBob exclaimed, his usual, bubbly self. 'Let's go.'

SpongeBob had to admit - it was dark. The various noises that came from the trees made him a bit frightened. But this was the Conch Shell they were looking for! He couldn't just walk away and never find it!

The sign, 'Bikini Bottom Kelp Forest' lay rusting behind them. The place was old, very old, abandoned for who knows how long. They continued walking for a few minutes, occasionally stopping and pointing to places where they thought the Conch Shell lay. But it was only when Patrick saw a faint, pink light in the distance did they know they had found the shell.

SpongeBob, as he usually did, let out a shriek of delight. 'Oh, it's here! It's really here!' He jumped about the place, laughing and rejoicing the return of his beloved Conch Shell. The others just stood around and clapped, although each clap was more and more apart as time passed, until they were just standing around, waiting for SpongeBob to stop. Squidward broke the silence, yelling, 'That's enough, shell-for-brains! Now get us out of here!'

SpongeBob gradually slowed down. He looked confused. 'Uh... out?'

'You heard me! Out! I refuse to stand around here any longer!'

'Oh... um...' SpongeBob stuttered, trying to come up with an answer. The truth was that he had no idea. After all, the only way they were able to come across the Conch Shell was by pointing in random directions, and SpongeBob hadn't thought of bringing a map with him so that he could find his way back.

'Do you even know how to get back?' Mr Krabs asked.

'Uh... no.'

'Well then. We're screwed.'

'Don't you have any phones?'

Mr Krabs hesitated. 'Uh... I don't have a phone. Sometimes you need to make some important business changes if you want to keep your establishment running.'

'Don't look at me,' Squidward groaned. 'I thought this was only going to take a few minutes.

Patrick, of course, could only say, 'What's a phone?'

Sandy looked around before saying, 'My phone is out of charge,' and here she pulled out a cord, 'but I do have a charge cord for it. We just need to find a place to put it in.'

SpongeBob smiled. That smile didn't last long though. 'My shell phone is at home, and I don't have any way to bring it with me. There must be somebody else here, or some place where Sandy can plug in her phone.'

Patrick looked around, in search of somebody they could talk to. His face lit up when he saw some guy in a business suit standing around, looking at them. 'Hey! Mister!' He started running over to the man. The others noticed Patrick running, and ran after him.

'Hey! Over here! We just wanna - oh.' Patrick saw nothing. The man had simply disappeared. As if there was nothing there in the first place. 'Where did he go?'

'Oh, this is just great,' Squidward fumed. 'We're stuck here in the middle of nowhere with that Conch Shell, no maps or phones to tell us where we're going, and now Patrick's losing it. What's next?'

'N-no! I saw him! He was just there...' Patrick seemed like he was about to cry. SpongeBob put a hand on his shoulder, saying, 'Don't worry Patrick. We'll find some way to get out of here.' 

Patrick started to feel a little better. But there was still the question of the man that he had seen. Did he actually disappear? Even more, was he actually there? The man looked like somebody from a black-and-white film - black business suit, white face and hands... And he had disappeared when Patrick started running towards him. What is the name of the Seven Seas was going on?

'SpongeBob, pick up that stupid conch. We're going to find a way out of this hellhole,' Squidward said, annoyed, as he started to walk away.

'Just a minute.' SpongeBob picked the conch shell up from the ground. There was a note taped to it. He ripped the note off of the shell and read it.

It was just a circle with an X through it. It was scribbled very badly on the note, as if the person who wrote it was in a hurry. SpongeBob thought this to be very curious, and called to everybody to have a look at it.

'It's just a crossed-out circle. What's so important?' Squidward complained.

Sandy glared at him before replying, 'It means that somebody got here before us. Somebody else made that note. For us to come an' find it.'

They looked at the note for quite some time, before SpongeBob dropped it on the ground and they walked away.


	2. Chapter Two

Patrick had an idea.

'If we just keep walking in one direction, we'll eventually reach the end. It's worth a try.'

SpongeBob, shaking his head, said, 'As much as I'd love to agree with you Pat, it might take a long, long time. Time that we don't really have.'

'Oh.'

'What we can do, however, is retrace our steps. Try to find out what directions we took to get us here.' Patrick seemed to approve the idea. SpongeBob smiled.

'Okay, well if everybody else approves of this then let's get going.' SpongeBob, after saying this, started thinking about which direction they had come from. He finally decided that they had come from the west, and, pulling out his compass (the one that he used when riding his bike in case he got lost), he was on his way.

'Hold on,' Squidward shouted to SpongeBob, 'I think I see something.' SpongeBob walked back to Squidward to see what it was. 'It's a tunnel,' Squidward said. 'A big pipe-looking one.'

SpongeBob squinted his eyes so that he could see, and lo and behold, the tunnel that Squidward was talking about lay there in front of them. He had to admit, it did look a bit like a pipe. One of those gigantic corrugated-iron pipes like the ones Sandy used to talk about from her days in the Texan industry. The entrance to the tunnel was filled with puddles of water, while the end of it was shrouded in darkness.

'Hey, I see it too,' Mr Krabs remarked. 'Should we go inside?'

SpongeBob shrugged his shoulders. 'Why not? Maybe, if we're lucky there'll be a map there. You know, so we can find a way out?'

Squidward rubbed his nose, a sign that he was contemplating what SpongeBob said. 'Hmm. Hate to admit it, but it's reasonable at the very least.'

Patrick rubbed his hands gleefully. 'Eeeheeheehee! We get to go in the big tunnel!'

That was that, and so they were on their way towards the tunnel. As they got closer, Sandy looked up at the tunnel with admiration. 'Hoo-ey!' she remarked in her thick Southern drawl, 'this tunnel sure looks like one o' them gigantic corrugated pipes I saw back in my days in the Texan industry.'

'What exactly did you do again? I forgot.' SpongeBob, beside her, looked confused.

Sandy shrugged. 'Eh. Don't really know.' SpongeBob turned to the tunnel once again - it was a reasonable enough answer.

'This tunnel is bigger than I thought,' Mr Krabs said as they were approaching the mouth of the corrugated-iron of said tunnel, 'Must've cost a fortune.'

'Hey! A map,' Patrick shouted. There was, sure enough, a giant map, behind a glass pane, on a stand next to the tunnel. The fog was so strong it could only be seen ten metres away.

'Let's take a look at it,' SpongeBob said, running up to take a closer look at the map. It was pretty big, almost as big as SpongeBob himself, and it was of low quality, only showing the white paths, green patches of kelp, and gray squares for various buildings and ruins situated around the area. Judging by the map, the forest was pretty big, a normal size for any park.

'I'm guessing we're here - by that gray rectangle?' Beside the gray rectangle wasa small red dot, the words 'YOU ARE HERE' next to it in red capital letters.

'Look!' Sandy pointed out. 'We're just outside the entrance.' It was true. On the map, the entrance was only a short distance away from the tunnel. Probably a five minute walk, they thought.

'First let's just go into the tunnel.' Patrick said, bouncing up and down. 'I want to see the tunnel!'

Sandy rolled her eyes. 'Fine. But we're going right after that, okay?' Patrick nodded, and immediately ran into the tunnel. 'Wheeee!'

SpongeBob, pushing Squidward aside, decided to go with him. 'He can get a bit excited. I'm just making sure he doesn't damage anything.' Squidward gave a little snort of disapproval.

SpongeBob, looking into the tunnel, cried out, 'Hey Pat! You okay?' No response. 'Pat.' No reply. 'You okay in there?' Nothing.

SpongeBob turned to look at the others.'We might have a bit of a problem. I'll see if there's something wrong. Wait there for me, okay?' SpongeBob, without another thought, plunged into the darkness in the tunnel.

'Well, this has just gotten slightly interesting,' Squidward scoffed.

\----

As SpongeBob walked into the tunnel, he noticed that the tunnel must have been there for a while. Most of the corrugated iron used to make the tunnel had rusted, and moss covered some of the ground. Come to think of it, he couldn't think of a reason why the tunnel had been there in the first place. A shelter? Some sort of contemporary art installation? He would never know.

He heard a sound. Footsteps. A gasp. SpongeBob moved closer to the source of the sounds. It was getting darker and darker, the fog somehow getting stronger as he continued. He decided to take out his flashlight - it should still work.

Click. A beam of light. The flashlight turned on.

Revealing Patrick.

Patrick looked frightened, lost. He was looking around, as if in search of something, some way out. SpongeBob couldn't blame him. In this type of darkness, you couldn't even see your own legs.

Patrick recoiled at the sudden burst of light, and when he had finally opened his eyes, he saw SpongeBob, smiling at him. 'SpongeBob!' Patrick shouted, running up to meet him. 'Am I glad to see you!'

SpongeBob, concerned, decided to cut to the chase. 'What happened, Pat?'

Patrick hesitated for only a moment before continuing. 'I was walking through the tunnel, and everything started to go dark and then I got really scared, and then you showed up.'

SpongeBob smiled a little. At least it wasn't something big. 

He put his arm around Patrick's shoulder, and started walking back to where they came. 'C'mon, Pat, let's go back outside....'

Patrick smiled. 'Sure thing, SpongeBob. You know, I-' He suddenly started coughing.

SpongeBob looked unsure. 'Uh... Patrick?'

Patrick continued coughing. At last, he wiped his mouth and said, 'Ugh... Sorry, buddy. Now what were you saying again-'

SpongeBob didn't answer, but stared into the fog, confused. There was a man there, the same guy that Patrick saw, standing in the darkness, looking at them.

Patrick looked back and saw the man. He started feeling annoyed. 'Hey, over there! Are you trying to follow us? Don't think I don't know who you are!' He shook his fist at the man.

Patrick turned around. 'That barnaclehead. He doesn't know when to stop, does he? That guy was the same person I saw back in the forest!'

As Patrick continued ranting, SpongeBob turned his head to see if the man was still there. He wasn't. The man had gone. Disappeared. As if he wasn't there at all. 

He turned back, and saw the entrance - and his friends all there, looking at them.

'... I mean really! It's almost creepy, you know? As if the guy was out to get us... Oh, hey guys!' Patrick finished, finally noticing Squidward, Sandy, and Mr Krabs there in front of him.

Mr Krabs looked at SpongeBob and Patrick. The boys look a bit freaked out. Like they saw something weird.

Mr Krabs took SpongeBob aside, and looked at him, saying 'What's wrong boy? Did you see anything?'

SpongeBob, suddenly unsure, finally opened his mouth, and told him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just had to put the tunnel from MH there. :P It was too great an opportunity not to.


	3. Chapter Three

'It was really weird,' SpongeBob told Mr Krabs, 'I don't really know what it was. But it looked like a man...'

'A man?' Mr Krabs interrupted. 'What do you mean, "a man"? Did he look lost?'

'Well, I'm not really sure sir, he didn't do a whole lot, he just stood there staring at us.'

Mr Krabs looked worried, and for a short while looked into the fog, as if searching for something. But after a split second he turned around and asked SpongeBob if he had seen the man's face.

'His face? I don't really know Mr Krabs... I didn't see any face at all.'

'No face?' Mr Krabs exclaimed. 'What do you mean by that, boy?'

'I mean he had no face, Mr Krabs... I'm not trying to be rude, but it's true. All I saw was white...'

'Oh no,' Mr Krabs sighed. 'This is bad. This is very, very bad.' When SpongeBob looked at him, confused, he mustered up his courage and told him a story.

'Boy... do you ever remember anything about the Civil War twenty years back?'

SpongeBob couldn't say for sure, as he had only been a kid during the war. But he knew a lot about it, so he decided to nod yes.

'Good. Well, I was a soldier in that war, after I left the navy. We were tasked with a simple mission - go into enemy lines, and find a safe way to sneak past and ambush them. We were supposed to send back information on how to do it. As you could probably tell, it was pretty dangerous.

'Now you see, we studied a map of the area, me and some friends from the regiment. And we decided that the best way to sneak past was through kelp. Camouflaged, any soldier with quiet feet could travel through without notice. The nearest kelp forest to the enemy base was the Bikini Bottom kelp forest, and so that was chosen.

'We were sent out on a secret mission in order to confirm that the forest was the safest way. It went fine for a while, until...' Mr Krabs went silent.

'Until what?' SpongeBob asked. By now, the others had noticed Mr Krabs and SpongeBob talking and decided to join in.

'Until... we saw a child. He must have been only five or six, wandering through the woods, lost. He was crying out for his mother, he was. Me and the boys took pity for him, and decided that we, as quiet as possible, would come up to him and tell him how to get out, and go back home.

'It... didn't go quite as planned. As soon as he saw us, he looked at us like we were monsters. We tried to calm him down, but he started running away. He probably thought we were going to capture him - and I guess I couldn't blame him either, what with it being a war and all. Nonetheless, we tried to catch up with him. And that was when we saw him.

'The man you saw in the tunnel, remember? Tall enough to touch the sky, wearing some kind of business suit with a black tie. His face... we just couldn't turn away from that face. All we saw was a bump for his nose and that was it. We were petrified.

'For some reason, he seemed interested in the child. The kid was just staring at him, unable to move. The man started moving slowly towards the kid. Suddenly a tentacle sprouted out of his back! It was a huge black thing, writhing and moving around like it was alive. The tentacle suddenly swiped the kid across the face. I heard him scream. By now I had turned my face around, trying not to listen to the screams of the poor lad. I waited there until the screams had stopped and I was sure the man had gone.

'I turned around, and saw lots and lots of plastic bags hung on the branches. The man was gone, and all the evidence we had of the kid was a scrap of clothing on the ground. I walked up to one of the bags and poked it with my rifle until I had made a hole in it. It was filled with blood. The blood of the kid we saw.

'Me and the boys stood there, staring. Then we turned around and went our way. We ended up getting the mission done, although not as fast as the Lieutenant would have liked. But I could never get the man out of my head, and I kept having nightmares about him for years after. I had seen his face. I had seen him kill that child. Now he would come for me. I still dream of him, sometimes.

'But one thing's for sure,' he concluded, 'that man is still around. Patrick ran into him in the tunnel. And that man he saw disappear wasn't an ordinary passer-by. We have to get out of here. Now. Before he catches us. Before he catches me, after what I did. After what Patrick did. We have to run, and never look back. That is the only way we can still live.'

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Looking back on this, I really think I could have written it better. But I suppose it reads pretty well as it is now.
> 
> I have tried to link as much of Mr Krabs' canon backstory with the new things in this fic as possible. Perhaps I'll do it with some of the other characters too, after this.


	4. Chapter Four

'We need to find the exit.' Sandy said. 'Now.'

'I second that,' SpongeBob added.

'Yeah,' said Patrick.

'Mm-hmm, sure,' Squidward groaned, having not believed a word of Mr Krabs' story.

'The squirrel is right,' Mr Krabs said gravely.

'Meow,' Gary purred happily.

'The only problem is, where?' SpongeBob added. 'We don't have a map.'

Mr Krabs turned around, pointing to the map outside the tunnel. 'There's our map.'

SpongeBob looked horrified. 'That?! We can't just take it with us! It's property of the park! We can't take it, no matter what.'

Sandy frowned. 'SpongeBob's right. What if somebody sees us with it?'

Mr Krabs stared at them for a second, his face stony. After a while he turned his head and walked away from the map. 'Well do you have any other ideas?'

Squidward smiled. 'Why don't we just go our separate ways? See who can find the exit first? I like that idea.'

'I know what you're hinting at, Mister Squidward,' Mr Krabs interrupted, 'and that's not what's going to happen.'

'Yeah, but once we know where it is, we can let everybody else know. Better for lots of people trying out separate ways rather than one group going in one direction. Saves time.' Squidward, worried that Mr Krabs knew about how much he wanted to get away from SpongeBob, decided to back up his suggestion with some more explaining.

Mr Krabs didn't seem to notice anything. He just said, 'Hmm' and agreed.

'Wait, what?' SpongeBob cried out in disbelief. 'We can't just split up! We have to come together, like Sandy said. Safety in numbers, right?' He looked up at Sandy, expecting her to back him up. Instead, Sandy just shook her head.

'He does have a point, SpongeBob. The sooner we can find the exit, the sooner we can let everybody else know. Having people with us just slows us all down.'

'You can't be serious, right?'

'SpongeBob,' Sandy answered, her face stony, 'you can't joke around in a situation like this. You gotta keep going, respect your instinct, and never look back.'

'But my instinct is to have somebody with me!'

'Well mine isn't.' Sandy started walking away, leaving the group behind. 'Bye.'

Nobody ran after her. Nobody cried for her to come back. Nobody said a word.

Silence. Only the sound of Sandy's footsteps in the fog, until they faded out and she was gone.

Mr Krabs was the first to speak. 'Well, that's that.'

Squidward looked at SpongeBob, smirking. 'Smooth moves, junior.'

'But. But she.. She wouldn't... She couldn't....' SpongeBob looked in the direction that Sandy had gone, stuttering.

'Well, this scallop's gonna fly!' Squidward laughed, walking away. 'See you SpongeBob! I'm going to miss you, boo hoo!' Squidward continued fake-crying and giggling as he walked out into the night and his footsteps faded.

SpongeBob, now about to cry, turned to Mr Krabs. 'Sir... don't go... please...'

Mr Krabs looked SpongeBob in the eyes. 'Boy, as much as it pains me to say this...' He started walking slowly away. '...Don't come after me.'

Mr Krabs said one last thing.

'I want to be alone.'

SpongeBob looked down at Gary, expecting him to slither away like all of the others. The snail simply purred and rubbed against his shoe. Good Gary. Brave Gary.

What a friend.

 

Not like them.

They wouldn't care.

'SpongeBob...' Patrick was beside him, smiling. 'I'm coming with you.'

SpongeBob's face brightened up. 'You are?'

'Sure,' Patrick said, 'I'm your best friend, right?'

'You sure are.'

'Meow.'

'Hey, Gary's coming with us!' Patrick sounded happy about that.

'Yeah. He's a great pal, aren't you, Garebear?' SpongeBob looked down at Gary.

Gary purred.

'Come on,' Patrick said. 'Let's go.'

'Hang on,' SpongeBob said, looking behind his back, 'I gotta look at the map.'

The map showed that the square of the tunnel was near the park entrance, to the southwest. He wondered if his friends had checked the map before hand. They didn't look like they were going in the direction shown on the map.

Correction. Acquaintances. 

They weren't his friends.

Not anymore.

SpongeBob pointed in the right direction. 'That way.'

The three of them, the sponge, the snail and the starfish, walked out into the night, leaving the safety of the tunnel behind them.

Of course, it wasn't really safe. After all, they had seen that man in there.

But it was a safer place than where they were going.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welp, everything's gonna go downhill now. :P


	5. Chapter Five

Sandy knew that she would find the exit first.

For starters, she left early. What a show that was. She was still surprised at herself over it. Walking out like that. Leaving the rest. SpongeBob would probably never forgive her for it. But he had Mr Krabs and Patrick. They were good friends of his. And besides, when it comes to surviving in the forest, you had to travel alone.

You could never be too careful in situations like this.

Secondly, she was prepared. She had gone on hiking trips before. Back in Texas. And those trips were long. Ten miles. This park was only a few miles in diameter. She knew she would be able to handle it.

Also, she had food. Nuts in her pocket. A bag in her suit compartment with two Krabby Patties inside, specially vacuumed so that they wouldn't rot. And once she got a set of tools going, she could use whatever animals could be found here.

Actually, she forgot to check her other pocket. There could be good stuff in there.

She pulled out a GPS device. Perfect. This could take less time than she thought.

It wasn't one of those old-fashioned ones, in which you would have had to program in co-ordinates before setting off. It was a recent model, with a map of locations that she could choose from. She selected the entrance to Rosswood Kelp Forest, and almost immediately, an arrow pointed the way.

She started walking. If she was right, she couldn't be more than a half-hour away. This was just what she needed. In a sense, it kind of took away the thrill of survival. The scavenging and path-hunting. But at least she would be the one to find the exit first.

It had almost become like a race. To see who could find the exit first. 

And Sandy loved races.

She knew she would cross the finish line first.

She stared off into the woods. Nothing there could harm her. She was completely on top of things. She had done this before.

Nothing could stop her. Nobody-

_HELLO_

What?

The sudden burst of static from the GPS device added to the confusion.

She looked at the device to see that it had gone completely out of control. Static and bits of images danced around the screen, as the white noise got louder and louder. When it had reached its loudest, a symbol flashed on the screen - a circle with an 'X' through it - before suddenly turning itself off.

She turned to the right, and saw a shadow in the background.

Whoever it was - it was a person, Sandy knew that for sure - it was standing tall and completely still. It slowly cocked its head to look at Sandy, and she heard another burst of static coming from the GPS. Turning to look at it, she saw that it was out of power. When she turned around to look at the shadow, it had disappeared.

Shaking, Sandy tried turning the GPS back on. It flashed with static for a few seconds, before turning itself off again.

She tried it again. The same thing happened.

Again. There was nothing.

Sandy breathed sharply and looked around her again. There was nothing there. Only the sounds of various animals from the treetops.

Animals that Sandy didn't feel control over any more.

She suddenly felt small.

And alone.

Very, very alone.

She looked at the GPS again, and then tossed it behind her.

Great. Now she couldn't remember which direction she was going in.

She started walking in a direction she chose at random. She knew it would probably never get her to the exit.

And, to be perfectly honest, she didn't care.

As she was walking, she passed a shed. It was old, with rotted walls and cobweb-covered windows that showed only blackness.

Sandy turned her eyes away, and started walking.

She didn't care.

'Well,' she chuckled nervously to herself, 'time to make some tools, I guess.'


	6. Chapter Six

'So, what are we gonna do when we get out?' Patrick asked SpongeBob.

'I don't know,' SpongeBob replied, shrugging, 'probably just wait for the others.'

'How long do you think that will take?'

'Not sure. The park's kind of small though. Hopefully they'll be able to find it in a couple of hours.'

'Meow.'

'Aw,' Patrick said. He tickled Gary until he purred. 'Good Gary. Who's a good Gary?'

'D'aw. Gary's the best.' SpongeBob agreed.

'Yeah.'

They kept walking for a while, not saying anything to each other. Patrick passed the time staring at the sky watching the stars. They looked pretty this time of the day. Like a bunch of them had spilled out of a bucket and were now slowly spreading over the galaxy. Of course, being Patrick, he had only acknowledged the fact that they were pretty. 

If only this fog would let up. Maybe then he could actually see anything farther than a few feet away.

Speaking of which, where was SpongeBob?

Patrick turned his head to look right in front of him. SpongeBob had already disappeared into the fog. Fishpaste. Now where did he go?

He tried running out in front of him, but a forked path stopped him in his tracks. Patrick was never very good at thinking before leaping, and so he had a split-second of thought before he suddenly went through the right path.

Which is funny when you think about it.

Because it was the wrong path too.

\-------------

'...and after that, we'll go to Goofy Goober's Party Boat, and then we can get ice cream, and then we can walk home, and then we can have supper, and then we can go to bed like all of this never happened! And then, we can read stories to each other, and we can turn out the lights, and...'

SpongeBob had been absent-mindedly reciting the 'things to do once we get out of here' list of things to do for the past few minutes. Gary stayed by his side, purring every once in a while to let SpongeBob know he was listening. He wasn't really. But SpongeBob needed cheering up right now, and so that seemed like the best option.

In truth, Gary was searching for something.

There was something strange around here. Something Gary couldn't explain. It left the usual trails, but they always seemed to lead to a dead end. Almost as if it had never been there in the first place. Than another trail of the same kind would show up right behind him, or off in the distance, and Gary would follow that, and it would once again lead nowhere. 

This had never happened before, and Gary was growing suspicious.

But if he wanted to get to the bottom of this, he would have to leave the path. Leave SpongeBob behind. And he just couldn't do it. The sponge might be a pain sometimes, but he was Gary's master after all. They were like a team, a partnership. Inseparable no matter what.

But it wasn't a decision he could put away until later. It was now or never.

Stay with SpongeBob, or leave and find the monster.

\---------

Squidward was enjoying himself. As he danced and skipped along the trails, he was humming a classical tune to himself. Finally, he could be alone for once. No annoying neighbours, or cranky bosses, or smartass squirrels. He could do whatever he wanted.

First, though, he had to get out of this forest.

He felt proud of himself for suggesting the idea to split up. The most surprising thing is, they all went along with it. Even Mr Krabs. Sure, it had taken some persuasion and all, but now they were on their own separate ways. And SpongeBob was now, probably, crying to himself somewhere in the woods, feeling sorry for himself. Alone.

It served him right. The annoying little brat.

Squidward couldn't even begin to count the number of times SpongeBob had selfishly annoyed him, sometimes to the point of breakdown. The worst part of it all was that the sponge couldn't even bring himself to admit that he was annoying. He was just a little coward after all. A little bully.

In Squidward's opinion, SpongeBob deserved everything that he would get here. Who knows? SpongeBob might even confess to Squidward at the end. Say he was sorry. That he would never annoy Squidward again.

Yes. That would be perfect.

Squidward continued skipping and dancing off into the night.


	7. INTERMISSION ONE

_Darkness._

_Nothing else._

_The forest had long since passed. Only bits of fog and shadow remained._

_Only a narrow path, telling him where to go._

_Sounds. Along the barren landscape. They seemed unearthly, almost divine._

_Almost demonic._

_Suddenly a flash of light. Then a slight glow. The glow grew bigger, and bigger._

_Another shadow joined the rest. It was almost unnoticeable, but it was there. He could sense it._

_Everything else stepped back. Vanished into the dark._

_He was suddenly very, very scared._

_The shadow grew stronger, eventually blotting out the rest. Enough so, that he could hear its voice._

welcome patrick

welcome to your new world


	8. Chapter Seven

Only five minutes later did Mr Krabs know he was alone.

It wasn't just that there was nobody else around him. Sure, he would occasionally glance behind him once in a while, to make sure SpongeBob wasn't nearby, but he stopped after a while. SpongeBob would understand. He was a responsible enough kid.

But there was something else. Something Mr Krabs couldn't see, and yet still knew was there.

It seemed like a little shadow, deep in the corners of his vision. Sometimes it would make its presence known, grow a little bigger. But after a while, it would disappear completely, only to reappear a few minutes later.

But that had stopped. The shadow was gone, and for quite a while now too.

He wondered what it was. It was like a dark patch in the recesses of his mind. He shook away the thought soon after. Maybe it was just something he ate.

Maybe it was something he had seen before.

He remembered the story that he had told the others. He had promised to himself, so many times, never to tell it. It had happened a long, long time ago. He was getting better. In fact, what with being the owner of a very busy restaurant and all, it has almost disappeared from his thoughts.

And yet, it was back again. It was, quite suddenly, there. Maybe it was just what happened in the tunnel that had made it reappear. Or maybe it was something else. Mr Krabs had the feeling that he would never know.

But now that it was there, it was all he thought about.

He remembered the numerous sleepless nights after the 'incident'. How he would wake up in a cold sweat, from a nightmare that he would never be able to remember. He recalled the many evenings when he would just stare out of the window, searching for something, and yet unsure of what he was searching for. He remembered the depression he had suffered after the war. And how he bought the Krusty Krab, and all of those troubles eventually disappeared. He had loved being a wealthy restaurant owner. It gave him something good to think about. He never intended to be greedy - it was just something that happened.

He was better now. He was supposed to be fine. He wanted to be okay.

And now this.

Would it ever stop? Would the man ever leave him alone? No, of course he wouldn't. Mr Krabs had done something unforgiveable. Something that he could never have avoided.

He was just a pawn in the grand scheme of things. A tool for the job. A body that could be experimented on.

From the moment he was born.

Krabs found a tree, sat down next to it, and cried.

\--------

Gary made up his mind.

He would go after the monster, leaving SpongeBob behind.

He wanted to stay with SpongeBob. He really did. But it just wasn't practical. The monster was there, close enough to be sensed. He couldn't just stand there and do nothing.

Gary remembered a phrase from one of the movies he used to watch on television: The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. If leaving SpongeBob to the darkness of the forest meant saving him and his friends, then the choice would be an obvious one.

He liked being with SpongeBob most of the time. His master would strike very long, mostly one-sided conversations, telling Gary about what he did at the Krusty Krab and all of the other uncanny things he would somehow get himself into during the day. Gary enjoyed those stories - not because they were particularly well-thought-out or thrilling, but that they always had a happy ending. The bad guy went to prison, the two friends made up again, the man managed to ask the woman out.

And if Gary managed to bring his plan into action, this story would have a chance at having a happy ending as well.

But to do that, he had to leave SpongeBob.

And that was exactly what he did.

Of course, he didn't leave unprepared. Gary had managed to scavenge a few sticks and stones that he could use for defence, and put them away in a place he knew they would be safe in. A week or so ago, he would have thought it preposterous - a few twigs and rocks against a monster? No chance.

But it was all Gary had. This was what he had to make use of. And by golly, he would make good use of them.

He was a bit worried about SpongeBob. His master had a good heart and a strong will, but he was easily shaken, and could run away from a fight just as easily as he could stand his ground. Gary had no idea what things were in this forest, nor if they would help him or hurt him. But he wished SpongeBob luck in his adventure. He would be on his own now.

Gary wished him luck, with all his heart.

Then he turned, and went on his way, leaving his master behind. SpongeBob didn't even see him leave. In all honesty, Gary thought that was a good thing. SpongeBob wouldn't know until much later. Better to keep him happy while he still could.

And now Gary was on his own, in the forest. Where? He didn't know. All he knew was that the monster was somewhere around here, and that was all Gary needed to know. 

Gary looked around. Just the usual dirt and trees. No paths - he had left the trail quite some time ago, and there didn't seem to be any other paths around, as far as he could see. But it was better this way. This way, it would be harder to find him. He would need all the advantage he could get.

The forest was very peaceful this time of night, Gary noticed. There was no strong wind, just a slight breeze that added to the coolness of the night. Gary wondered what time it was now. Probably around ten o'clock? They had come here a couple of hours ago, that was for sure. How he wished he had brought a watch with him.

Suddenly he heard a noise behind him. He turned around. There was nothing there.

But that wouldn't fool Gary. Something had been there all along.

\---------

'Gary?' SpongeBob cried. 'Gary, are you there?'

He had been running around, shouting Gary's name for ten minutes now. Gary had not come out. How had he disappeared anyway? SpongeBob could have sworn he was there, right beside him, not too long ago. And now he had just vanished. As if he was never there at all.

'Oh, what's the use,' SpongeBob admitted in defeat. 'He's gone.'

It seemed that all anybody wanted to do these days was leave SpongeBob behind. It was bad enough with Sandy and Mr Krabs and Squidward, but now Gary? SpongeBob wondered if there really was something wrong with him.

And, to make things worse, he hadn't seen Patrick in a while too - did that mean his best friend had gone and left him as well?

A small part of SpongeBob's brain tried to say that it was not his fault, but the rest of him did not listen. Why else would his friends just leave him like that? Of course, Squidward had said many times that SpongeBob was the most annoying person he had ever met, but SpongeBob had dismissed that as a playful joke... he had not taken it seriously.

If Squidward was right... then what would everybody else be thinking? Would they be hating him as much as Squidward did?

_Hang on._

SpongeBob straightened up. 

_I still have the Conch Shell._

He felt around in his back pocket, and his fingers closed around the shell. SpongeBob pulled it out. It was a simple, plastic shell, with a speaker output device at the mouth of the shell, and a retractable cord at the back.

Five days ago, he would have regarded this thing as magic. Now he just thought of it as a toy. Nothing more. He felt like a fool for believing it was magic, even after it had given him and his friends food and shelter. It was just a stupid toy.

But...

Could it still work?

SpongeBob shook the conch shell for a while, and fiddled with the cord. It still worked. What a relief.

Slowly, SpongeBob thought of what to say. Whatever he said, it would have to be precise. It wouldn't do to simply ask it if he had no friends. Of course he had friends. Just not here.

He thought of it as a bit silly, putting his trust in an inanimate object. But it was the only thing he had.

SpongeBob knew what to say. He took a deep breath, grasped the cord by his finger and thumb, and asked it a question.

"Should I keep going on?"

He let go of the cord. Slowly but surely, it sank back into the shell (it took only a few seconds, but to SpongeBob it seemed like forever). There, the movement of the cord powered the mechanism inside, choosing a random output sound out of the many few stored in its system. The answer came.

"Yes."

SpongeBob suddenly felt a rush of happiness inside him. He may have lost all of his friends, but at least the Conch Shell still believed in him. It had told him not to give up. It had told him to keep going, to find the exit.

If that was what the Conch Shell wanted, then that was what he was going to do.

He set off again, almost skipping along the path, the Conch Shell in his hand. 

And then the Conch Shell spoke again.

" _what are you so happy about_ "

SpongeBob heard the sound as plain as day. He stopped running, the surge of joy vanishing as soon as it had come. He looked around, but there was nobody else there. Then his eyes fell on the Conch Shell.

As if in response to that action, it spoke again.

" _go ahead_ "

" _run all you want_ "

It did not sound like the usual, monotone voice that the Conch Shell spoke in. This voice was more gravelly, and yet very soft, almost like a whisper. Whatever it was, SpongeBob did not like it at all, and he stared at the shell with increasing terror as the shell continued talking.

" _but you will never escape_ "

" _none of you will_ "

SpongeBob could not tear his eyes away, and he could not let go of the shell. Almost as if something had glued his hands to the device. He was terrified at this point, even more so due to the fact that he simply could not run away.

" _not from me_ "

Suddenly, SpongeBob was dragged to the ground. His knees buckled, his arms were stretched out in front of him, and he let go of the Conch Shell. It had begun to laugh. The laughing grew louder, and louder. Soon it was ringing through SpongeBob's ears. He was trapped in a nightmare, he was sure of it. The worst kind of nightmare. One from which he could not wake up.

And then, it was over. He landed in a heap on the ground. The Conch Shell stopped laughing. It was all over.

He crawled away from the shell - he could not get to his feet no matter how he tried - and took one final glance at it. He never wanted to see it again. It was all its fault. It was the reason they were trapped in the forest, it was the reason he came here, and it was the reason he was here now, crawling away like a child.

He hated that shell. And yet all he could do was run away from it.

The Conch Shell let out a burst of static.

SpongeBob started running away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well that was long. Two thousand words, I think? I remember when I was originally writing this, I was reaching for exactly 2000 words for some reason (which explains the rather shoddy ending of this chapter) but then I just said 'screw it' and now it's like 2005 words.
> 
> Oh well. Hope you still enjoy this, despite my occasional weird OCD tendencies.


	9. INTERMISSION TWO

_The shadow led the way, with Patrick tagging behind. Dark and fuzzy photographs flashed through the darkness beside them, none of them clear._

_Patrick was still scared, but somehow, having the shadow protect him was slightly reassuring. After all, it seemed to know its way across the never-ending path through oblivion. The shadow was the only thing he could really trust in this strange, new world._

_Patrick occasionally tried to take a breather and pause for a bit, but he had stopped doing that a while back. The shadow was never very pleased when he did that. But at least it never shouted. It was unsettling enough when it whispered to him; he couldn't bear to think what it might be like having the shadow shouting at him._

_So Patrick had tried his best to be polite._

_Occasionally, pictures and blurry images would distract Patrick from what he was doing. Pictures of trees, and dirt paths. Pictures of a certain forest. A forest that, oddly enough, Patrick thought he recognised. Even stranger, the shadow seemed to get more and more agitated whenever these images showed up in the back of Patrick's mind. And whenever that happened, the images would stop soon after. Patrick wondered what was going on. Was the shadow causing all of this?_

_The path would curve and turn a lot. Sometimes it would curve right around something, and Patrick had no choice but to follow it. Once he had tried reaching out through one of those curves, and he had hit something solid. It felt like tree bark, although there was nothing there._

listen to me

_Oh. The shadow was starting to speak. Patrick hurried up to it._

_He had listened to the shadow's stories before, and they had filled him with intrigue. He had been told of giant universes, thriving civilisations, and endless cities, each sporting impeccable structures with impossible geometry. And then suddenly, there was nothing left. There was only blackness. And then Patrick would see another universe, with another planet. Patrick's planet._

_Patrick realised that this was how the shadow had come here. How or what had really happened, he would probably never really know. But it was the shadow's story, and that was enough information for Patrick to realise that it was important business._

now listen closely

this is important

_Patrick was listening closely._

what i want you to do

is

find your colleagues

_Patrick was surprised. An actual mission? Did the shadow think he was important? This was happy news to him._

_Wait._

_Did he say... colleagues?_

find your colleagues

and bring them to me

_No. No. This couldn't be happening._

_Patrick couldn't do that. It would be wrong of him. He didn't want to make the shadow angry. He really didn't. But bringing his friends with him, into this path of darkness? That was almost a diabolical thought._

that is your instructions

_No, no, no!_

excuse me

what is this i see

_No, no, no. Please don't be angry at me, Mr Shadow Guy. It's just that..._

are you afraid

do not be afraid

i will help you

_Patrick didn't care. He didn't want to be here anymore._

_He turned around, and started running away. Away from this monster._

come back

now

_Suddenly the shadow was right in front of him. He could see it clearly now. A humanoid shape, featureless and white - and somehow managing to stay dark and terrifying all the same._

_The shadow reached closer. Patrick could almost imagine it sensing his fear._

if you do that

ever again

_Patrick whimpered softly. He was about to cry._

i will not hesitate

i will cast you away

and you will be alone

_No. Patrick did not even want to think about that._

_He was not even thinking about the shadow anymore. His eyes were closed tight. All he was thinking about was how scared he was, how terrifying this place was, and how he just wanted to go home, to wake up. As if this was all a bad dream._

_The shadow was getting very annoyed. Patrick knew it, and yet he did not care._

_The shadow decided to make him care._

_For the first time since Patrick's arrival in this new plane of existence, the shadow shouted at him._

**DO YOU UNDERSTAND**

_Suddenly Patrick was swept off his feet as the silent voice in his thoughts nearly deafened his ears. He was suddenly covered with sweat, his head pounding, his ears ringing, his whole body quaking from shock. Patrick was now crying, softly but steadily, and the flow of tears running down his face only served the purpose of blurring his eyes and making his fear of this shadow even stronger._

_And suddenly, he was not there._

_A forest of trees surrounded him. The same forest that was shown in the slight glimpses Patrick saw before, only now it stayed there._

_He was back. He was alive. He was free._

are you really

_No. No he wasn't. The shadow was still there, much to Patrick's disappointment._

_He still had a job to do. He had a mission to complete, even if he didn't feel up to the task._

_He got up, started walking, and began his quest._


	10. Chapter Eight

Things were going well for Sandy.

Over the course of half-an-hour, she had managed to find her way to a large, abandoned building at one of the edges of the forest. Upon closer inspection, the dirt-covered markings scratched in a slab of rock next to the entrance told her that she had found what was once a hospital. What type of hospital it was, the sign never said. It didn't really matter anyway, because the whole building was abandoned.

Sandy had stopped for a moment to think about what might be inside. This was the point in most horror movies where the hero (or a past victim) finds a run-down building, explores it, and finds something that lands them in big trouble. Sandy was never one for horror movies, but she knew, without a doubt, that there would probably be something in that hospital. Whether it would be a help or a hindrance was a question Sandy thought was best if left for another time.

Sandy never usually believed in magic. She always stuck with the notion that there would be a way of explaining everything with science. Magic, she thought, was a thing invented by people who just didn't know any better. She had dedicated her whole life to explaining things with science, whether it was a new crackpot invention, a six-hundred page hypothesis about the theory of extra dimensions in space-time, or a simple talk with SpongeBob and Patrick whenever they had a problem and wanted an answer.

Sandy wondered for a second what a hospital was doing in a forest, however she settled on the reason that it was there when the forest owners came around and it had not been demolished as they were closing off the area. If the hospital owners did not want the building demolished, it certainly didn't do anybody else any good - the derelict building was now quite an eyesore against the dark green of the forest.

As Sandy walked inside, she took a look around and examined the walls of the building. The walls were made of concrete, with white paint spread on the surface, although by now the white paint had mostly turned to rust and had completely disappeared in some areas. The walls were also covered in graffiti - derogatory phrases, messages like 'Nancy Hearts Kevin' and 'Call me’, and some were simply circles that were crossed out with an X, something Sandy thought was probably just a gang symbol or a new art trend.

Sandy cautiously called out, 'Hello? Anyone?'. She felt almost relieved when there was no answer. Sandy knew it was ridiculous to say that - even if there were people here, they wouldn't exactly come out of the building and say hello, would they? But Sandy was rather paranoid at this point, and as a result was not thinking very clearly - and by now she thought that silence meant the hospital was safe to go in. Silence was good - noise was bad.

Sandy entered the hospital to find herself in a large room, covering most, if not all, of the entire first floor. Looking around, she could see planks, some burnt, some cracked, on the floor. Debris was everywhere. Could it be possible that there was a fire here? If so, that would probably explain why the place was now abandoned.

Sandy turned to her left. She saw a few small windows, the glass having been shattered years ago. There was a hole in the ceiling, leading up to the second floor, with more cracked planks and pieces of concrete lying on the floor underneath it. There was more graffiti inside the building, more of those weird crossed-out circles. Sandy had no clue what they were.

And suddenly, she remembered.

The note. Underneath the Conch Shell, back when all of this started.

The same circle crossed out with an X.

Sandy didn't know what all of this suddenly meant, but she did know one thing.

Somebody expected them to come.

Perhaps they wrote the note as a warning, that they should have immediately turned back - or even that they shouldn't have come here in the first place. Because all of a sudden, this weird... thing started chasing them, and they all ended up splitting.

Could all this be connected? She would have to make a mental note to write this all down once she found a notepad or something. Who knows, maybe there was one here, in the hospital? It wouldn't kill her to check.

She decided to examine the first floor for a few minutes. All she found was old, rotten planks, detritus, and other kinds of debris. She wondered how the hospital was still standing after half of its framework had collapsed. Sandy couldn't see a way up towards the second floor from this room - except for the hole in the ceiling, and Sandy didn't want to risk trying to climb through it. Maybe there were other rooms on this floor?

She looked around some more, and sure enough, she found an entrance to another room. It was very dark inside the hospital, due to it being the middle of the night, so it took her a while to find it. She hadn't noticed that the hospital was this big from the outside.

Sandy entered the room. It was considerably cleaner than the other room. Among the odd pieces of dirt and stray wooden planks, she could make out desks, chairs, and boxes, probably filled with equipment. She scanned around some more, and - sure enough! - there was a little notepad with a pen lying on one of the desks. Sandy picked up the notepad, brushed the dust off of it, and decided to write down all she could.

_Okay, so apparently we're now trapped in a forest. There's something chasing after us... I don't even know what time is it, something like ten-thirty or what? I don't even know. Anyway, we went into this kelp forest because SpongeBob said there was something he needed that was inside here. Sometimes I worry about the little critter. We found a weird note and then this guy in a suit started to stalk Patrick. Then, we split up and..._

She kept writing for the next few minutes. In a way, writing everything that had happened to them until now help to clear her mind somewhat, and after she had concluded with, "and I found a hospital and a notepad and I'm writing this now." she stood back and took a deep breath. Nothing was going to happen to her. She would be fine. And now that she had written everything down, others would be able to find out what had happened if something did happen.

Yes. She was fine. For now.

She decided to keep the notepad with her, in case there was anything else to write down as she went through this building. She walked out of the room, and decided to search for a way upstairs. 

First, Sandy examined the rooms in the first floor. As well as the main lobby and entrance, there were three rooms connected to it - one on the left, one on the right, and a corridor going forwards. She had already entered the right room, and the left, as she soon found, contained nothing substantial - just a bunch of planks and dirt, like the lobby. She had yet to go to the corridor, but before she did that, she checked around the outside of the building, in case there were any secret stairwells or fire escapes she could also use. She found none.

So far, there was only the corridor to search. But just in case, she decided to check the other rooms connected to the main lobby as well. Just in case she missed something. She didn't like the idea of going into the corridor, anyway -something about it was just... weird. Sandy wasn't normally the kind to think this, but she had seen so many other things before... Things that weren't normal. Things she couldn't explain.

For example, why was some guy in a suit chasing them all over the forest?

And did Mr Krabs' story really have any truth in it? She didn't see him around a whole lot, but from SpongeBob's view he was normally a very practical person. He wouldn't normally believe in things like his story... except if it was true. But that was impossible. Nothing in that story made any sense. If what happened in the story was really true, why didn't Mr Krabs tell anybody sooner? He didn't seem like the sort of person who would keep such a secret away from everybody he knew, everybody he loved.

_Urrrgh._ Sandy shook those thoughts from her head. _You're distracting yourself, trying to stall the inevitable. Just go through the corridor. Nothing will be there. Nothing._

Sandy walked towards the corridor. Slowly. One step. Two steps. Three. Each little step she took, she found herself getting closer and closer to something. What was it? It wasn't just the corridor, she realised. Something else was there.

Four steps. Five steps. Six. Sandy couldn't see what was inside the corridor. The end of the corridor was shrouded in darkness. Maybe this was because she didn't want to go in? No. Not just that. Something else.

Seven steps. Eight steps. Nine steps. Ten.

She reached the start of the corridor, finally - after what seemed like hours, but was really only seconds. She glanced into the darkness that lay ahead of her, as if something was about to reach out from it and grab her. Which might very well happen, anyway. She didn't know what could be in there.

Her legs still moved, however. She kept moving. She kept walking through the corridor. The darkness slowly, but surely, began to recede. Now she could make out some more tables on the side, some more rooms, and a staircase right in front of her. So, that was the way to the second floor. Somehow Sandy didn't think that was a reason to celebrate.

She was just about to walk up the staircase when she heard something above.

She heard the sound of crying.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaaaaand that's all I've written so far. I have another chapter in the works however, and I will post that when I'm finished with it. Stay tuned!


	11. INTERMISSION THREE

_A hospital?_

yes

you know what to do

_Patrick didn't think this was the kind of place Sandy would go. Even though the shadow was sure of it. The shadow was sure of everything._

_After the shadow had punished him for not following his orders, Patrick decided not to question anything it said and just do what it asked of him. It was better for him this way. Now he wouldn't be distracted by anything. So far, it had worked. He was able to find this hospital, anyway._

_The path of light had disappeared. In fact, the entire world he had visited with the shadow before had gone. He was back in the real world. He supposed he should thank the shadow for returning him here. That other place was starting to get rather creepy. However, he could never find the proper words to use for thanking the shadow. He was never very good with words anyway._

_It was funny, how he had found this place. All the shadow told him was to just walk. Walk in any direction. Any at all. At first Patrick was confused. But then, once he started walking, the shadow... did something. It did something to the forest around him. It was as if... he was in one place, and then suddenly he was in another place. What was the word for that? He struggled to recall. Tele-something?_

_Maybe Sandy would know. She knew all of these things. Maybe, once he found her, he'd ask her that question. 'What does it mean, when you're in one place, and then suddenly you're in another place?' Yeah. Hey, maybe that's why the shadow brought him here. He should probably ask it. It would definitely know._

_Excuse me, mister Shadow._

what

_Why are we doing this? Why are we going here? Is it to ask Sandy a question?_

oh patrick

surely you remember your promise

_And then, as if on cue, Patrick suddenly remembered it all. It had all seemed dull and blurry in the back of his mind before, but now his pact with the shadow was clear as crystal._

_He had..._

_He had promised to kill his friends. All of them._

_Patrick didn't remember why he had done it. Why would he? Did the shadow force him? Was he being... controlled, somehow? Was he being controlled right now? He didn't want to kill his friends, not after what they'd all done together. He didn't want to-_

_And then he realised that the shadow was getting agitated at his disobedience. So he tried to think about all this in a different way. The shadow never even said he was going to kill them. Just that he was to 'bring' them to it, somehow. How he was supposed to bring them to it, he didn't know. But the shadow would probably make sure to tell him, or let him know, sooner or later._

_And Sandy was the first on the list. Which was why the shadow had brought him here. Who knows? Maybe the shadow wouldn't kill her when he brought her to it. After all, it hadn't killed him when it had found him..._

_...which meant that the shadow was going to bring her into its world. It was going to do to her what it had done to him. And what had it done to him, anyway?_

_It had turned him into a monster. A crazy monster who wanted to kill his friends._

_Patrick suddenly felt small, alone, and very much terrified._

_\----_

_"This place is a dump," Patrick exclaimed, as he kicked yet another bit of wooden plank across the floor of the hospital. He wasn't really sure who he was talking to, but he had found that talking to himself helped calm his nerves in situations like these._

_He wasn't even sure what he was supposed to be doing, besides simply wait for Sandy to arrive. If she would even arrive. Then again, what did he know? The shadow would know everything. But would the shadow know what Sandy would do next? Maybe he was controlling them all, in some sort of twisted puppet show._

_Patrick remembered when he and SpongeBob had put on a puppet show of sorts. They didn't really use puppets, to be honest; they had just drawn their faces on their hands with a marker. The props were made of sand. But they did have a good time, with SpongeBob and Patrick having fun in SpongeBob's sand pineapple house, and Patrick relaxing in his sand rock, and then going off on adventures at the Krusty Krab._

_That was the day Sandy had left for Texas. Well, not really 'left' - thankfully he and SpongeBob had convinced her to stay with a giant party. Patrick chuckled slightly at the image of him and SpongeBob wearing ten-gallon bottles as hats._

stop tarrying

remember what you came here

to do

_Right, right, uh, sorry mister shadow._

_Patrick recomposed himself. He was supposed to follow the shadow's orders, and here he was thinking of all the fun times he had with Sandy, how friendly they were despite everything, and how he didn't want her to come here, that was pretty mean of you mister shadow, thank you very much._

_The shadow didn't seem to make any response to Patrick's sarcastic remark._

_Oh well. It was worth a try._

_Patrick spotted a corridor to the left of him, which was strange as he didn't recall seeing it before. He decided to follow it nonetheless, and after walking past a few of those hospital bed things with wheels, and rooms with nothing of importance in them, he saw a staircase going up._

_Something inside him told him to walk upstairs. Was it the shadow? Patrick wasn't able to tell, as the shadow wasn't whispering to him at the moment, and yet this seemed like something it would do. He shrugged off the notion. Whatever sudden choice this was, it would probably be the right one anyway._

_He slowly walked up the staircase. It seemed to creak slightly with each step, as if it were somewhat old, unstable. Patrick wondered if that was even possible. The staircase, as far as he could tell, was made of solid concrete. Like the rest of the hospital._

_Also, was there even an end to this staircase?_

_It seemed to stretch out in front of him as far as the eye could see, and it disappeared in a black fog far away._

_He kept walking for a while longer, but the scenery remained the same._

_He decided to turn around and see how much he had been walking, to try and get his bearings._

_The stairs behind Patrick stretched out below him for infinity too, ending in the same black fog._

_Patrick suddenly felt sick._

_He turned around again._

_The stairs now ended a few feet above him, the second floor in sight._

_Patrick, now after breaking out into a cold sweat, gingerly walked up these new steps, and onto the second floor. They didn't seem to be an illusion. Not this time._

_He turned around, checking to see if the other part of the staircase was an illusion too. The stairs below him now stretched thirty feet below him, and he could see the floor below._

_Patrick closed his shaking hands into a fist. Whatever prank the shadow was after pulling on him, it wasn't funny._

look around

_Patrick took a look around. The second floor seemed just like the first one, only this floor had no windows, and no rooms branching off from it. In fact, aside from detritus and a few small charred planks here and there, the second floor was significantly cleaner than the first._

_He didn't trust the shadow anymore. Was this an illusion too?_

be calm

you are to remain here

waiting for your colleague

to arrive

_That seemed reasonable enough. But for how long? This room was already starting to creep him out a bit._

it will not take long

she is on her way here 

right now

_Oh, alright. Thanks for simpil-fying all that for me, Mister Shadow._

_There was a short pause._

it is pronounced

simplifying

you bumbling idiot

\----

_When was Sandy going to arrive?_

_Patrick had been standing in this barren room for... how long? He didn't know. He didn't have a watch, save for the one he painted on his wrist a long time ago. He looked at it now. It read '10:30', which Patrick knew wasn't true, as it was the middle of the night right now and certainly not ten in the morning. He wished his watch was real, and that it would show the right time. He had taken to redrawing the hands of the clock every few minutes when he had first acquired his painted watch, but that got tiring after a while._

_Anyway, he had certainly been here for a long time. That he was sure of._

_He was now sitting at the foot of the stairs, looking down into the first floor - either checking for Sandy or checking for any more of the shadow's tricks, Patrick wasn't sure anymore. He had tried asking the shadow about Sandy's arrival time a few times in his head, and when that elicited no response, he asked out loud. Still no response._

_Grumbling to himself, Patrick stood up and started pacing the floor. Anything to whittle away the time until he received information._

_While he was walking around in circles across the dirty white tiles of the hospital floor, Patrick tried to remember everything he knew about Sandy. She was very clever. She knew all about lots of things, things like science and machines and cool things like that. She was good at inventing science and machines too. And she was a real friend, to both him and SpongeBob. Always helping him out when he had a problem, even if that problem was incredibly stupid and had a very simple answer which Sandy could figure out on the spot. She always believed in there being an answer for anything, even things that normally couldn't be explained. Did that mean she had an answer for the shadow? What it was doing to Patrick? Better add that to the list of things to ask her later when this was all over._

_Anyway, all in all, Sandy was a really good fr--_

hush

_Patrick stopped, surprised, and mimed zipping his lips. It then struck him as a bit of a silly idea, to do that when there was nobody around. Well, the shadow was. But nobody who didn't exist in Patrick's mind was here with him._

do you hear that

_Patrick listened intently. The shadow adjusted his hearing somehow, to make the sound easier for Patrick to hear._

_It sounded... kind of like..._

footsteps

she is here

_Oh. Sandy was down there, walking around the hospital floor, looking at things. Examining things. Being very sciency. He could hear her picking things up, then after a while dropping them back to the ground with a clatter. At one point he heard her calling out 'Hello?' clear as day, and he felt a sudden urge to run to her, because then he'd be okay, he'd be safe, he'd be with somebody other then this terrible shadow that haunted his mind—_

stay

put

_Patrick was afraid. Not because of the shadow's warning remark, although any other time that would be the cause. He was afraid of never seeing Sandy again. He felt a deep, widening hole of sadness suck his thoughts in, bit by bit. It was like being stuck between two really hard decisions, like choosing whether to buy a Krabby Patty with fries or chilli coral bits, and this was the part where_ SpongeBob your best friend _entered his mind, compounding the stress of it all a hundred million kabazillion times more, and Patrick couldn't handle it anymore. He couldn't._

_He didn't know when he started crying. He only realised it was happening when he felt warm tears dripping like rain on his pink skin, and it was only the notion of_ you're crying _that pushed him over the edge, and he started bawling, great heaving sobs making him cough, which only made him cry more._

_"Waaahaahahahh... I miss my friends..." he cried out after a forever of tears, unable to stop himself, so deep in sorrow that he even forgot about the shadow overlooking his every thought._

_Downstairs, the background noise of Sandy's footsteps abruptly stopped._

you snivelling little—

_"Patrick? Is that you?"_

_A great wave of hope swam over Patrick, along with another wave of tears, and he cried out, much louder this time, "Yes! Y-yes, Sandy, it's me! It's Patrick, I'm Patrick, please please help me, I don't want to be alone..." Then the crying resumed._

_After a while, Sandy responded, a worried tone lacing her words. "It's going to be okay Patrick, I'm coming up, y'all don't need to be worried about anything, I'll be there!"_

_"Yes... yes..." Patrick shook with what were now tears of joy. At last, there was help on the way. No more, no more shadow, no more creepy paths of light, no more not being with any of his friends._

no

_Yes! No more! No... wait._

this

this will not

be tolerated

do you understand me

_Patrick, now knowing he was not alone in the real world, now gained a sense of courage. He stuck back at the shadow with a barrage of shouting thoughts._

_Go away! Go away, Shadow, you big dumb jerk! Get out of my mind! It's mine! Not yours! So get out! Before I have to make you get out, you stupid dumb!_

_And after the last shouting thought left his brain, Patrick, exhausted mentally, saw what could only be Sandy nearly at the foot of the stairs._

_"Patrick!" Sandy exclaimed._

_"Sandy!" Patrick cried._

_Sandy walked slowly towards him, an arm stretched out, ready to help him escape..._

_The shadow screamed._

STOP

_And Sandy burst open._

_Patrick's vision was covered in red before he could even begin to muster a single thought. Sandy lay in a heap on the ground, in a whirlwind of blood, looking deflated, flat even..._

_And when Patrick suddenly realised what was going on, he also knew that was just Sandy's skin._

_He saw the real monster a second later, and screamed._

_It was indescribable, a mix of everything bad and awful and frightening that Patrick had ever known. A mass of pincers, tendrils, claws, and eyes that burned with what could only be rage, seemed to surround his vision. Patrick fell over, still screaming, managed to shuffle backwards, still screaming, bumped into a wall behind him, screaming even more. The monster stomped in his direction, leaving footprints of blood behind it._

_There was no escape. There was no way around it. There was only—_

_The monster spoke. A deafening, blood-curdling screech of what sounded like every horrible and scary noise merged into one. Patrick started flailing, pushing, punching, kicking, attacking the bloody monster in whatever way was possible. He jumped on it, screaming for it to stop, slapping it around, and still it roared. Patrick felt his skull might burst open from the noise._

_After what seemed like forever, the shadow spoke again._

you are

useless

goodbye, patrick

_And in a single instant, a sudden weight_ exited from Patrick's mind, and he knew then that the shadow was gone.

He also knew, looking down with a shaking head, that the monster he had been fighting...

...was Sandy. The shadow had played a trick on him.

Sandy lay unconscious on the floor in front of Patrick. Well, either unconscious, or worse.

Patrick shuffled over on his knees to Sandy's prone body, shaling her helmet, whispering (he could only manage a hoarse whisper) to her to wake up, please wake up Sandy, I'm sorry, please let me know you're okay...

He was beginning to think Sandy was dead when she woke up, eyelids fluttering, groaning. "What... happened?"

Patrick gulped. "I thought you were a monster. The shadow made you look like a monster, and I hurt you."

Sandy sat up. "What shadow?"

"The shadow in my head."

Sandy rubbed her helmet, and stood up, confused. "Pat, you're makin' less sense than an orange furry tankapult."

"I'm... I'm just happy we're okay."

Patrick hugged her. Sandy hugged him back. Without the shadow, his mind felt clean, like clean air on a really nice day.

Then as they stopped hugging, a thought occurred to Patrick for the second time today. "What's that thing when you're in one place, and then you just appear in another place?"

Sandy was silent for a while. "Are you talking about teleportation?" She started walking down the stairs, gesturing for Patrick to follow her. Patrick did. He wanted to go away from this place, really bad. "Pat, you've really got some explainin' to do."

And as Sandy and Patrick left the abandoned hospital for good, Patrick thought, ' _Teleportation. That sounds about right, _' and smiled for the first time in what seemed like an eternity.__

__He was okay again._ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thus ends the INTERMISSION.
> 
> ...for now.


End file.
